As usual, Draco did not get much sleep, even less than normal if that were possible. He got dressed quickly and peaked in on Granger, she was still fast asleep. He closed the door a bit, leaving it open only a crack, before heading to the kitchen. He made himself a cup of tea and drank it fast, pouring himself another cup.
All the questions that were keeping him up last night, were still racing around his mind this morning.
Maybe he should call Potter. It would be the right, and smart, thing to do. He specifically told Draco to stay out of trouble and this constituted as trouble. He desperately wanted this promotion and would do anything to keep it, but he also didn't want to betray Granger. He was in a predicament he wished he could just snap away. As if things weren't stressful enough for him, his bloody doorbell rang again, he needed to get rid of that.
Draco looked through the peephole and his heart nearly dropped to his stomach.
Potter was standing at his doorstep.
"Bloody hell" He paced in front of the door for a few seconds before collecting himself and tried to bring his heart rate down.
"Potter, what are you doing at my house?" He asked the chosen one, who smiled brightly when Draco opened the door.
"Good to see you too, Malfoy" He brushed passed Draco and let himself in.
It took everything in Draco not to start hyperventilating.
"Sorry, not used to visitors" He mumbled.
"Just messing with you, I just wanted to drop these files off actually, it's the case I'm currently working on, it's what you'll be working on with me, come Monday" He set the folder down on Draco's counter. "Look it over and get to know all the details, it's not a very big case, but it's the biggest one we have right now, which I suppose is a good thing" Potter shrugged. Draco knew he was craving some excitement, he'd been surrounded by battles and obstacles his whole life, it must be strange to live 'normally' for once.
"Right, I'll get right on it" Draco nodded.
"Great, well, if you have any questions just send an owl, it's just us working on this case, no one else can know about it, top secret and all that" If it were any other day Draco may have offered his old nemesis some tea, or attempted to be polite, but it was not any other day and he was currently harboring Hermione Granger in his spare room, he wanted Potter out as quickly as possible.
"Will do, thanks Potter" Draco smiled tightly at him, he started to walk him to the door.
"See you Monday then, Malfoy" Potter smiled.
"Right, see you" As soon as Potter's feet were out the door, Draco shut the door and locked it shut. He let out a sigh of relief.
He hadn't even realized he'd been holding his breath. He turned around and leaned against the door, sliding down until he was sitting on his floor.
What was he doing? He was supposed to be a changed man now, not his old scheming schoolboy self. He had a real opportunity to prove himself to be something other than a coward death eater. If he blew this chance, he knew he wouldn't get another one. He had been lucky to get a job at all in the Ministry, let alone in the Auror department, and now he had a real shot and being an official Auror.
He should have just come clean to Potter and taken him to Granger. He should've. But he didn't.
Draco pulled himself together and off his floor and marched himself to where Granger was sleeping. He was going to tell her she had to leave, that she put him in a terrible position and that she had to go.
He opened the door and she was sitting up, she smiled when he walked in.
"Good morning" She said, sleep still in her voice.
"Oh, uh, morning" He suddenly lost his train of thought.
"Was that Harry I heard?" She asked him.
"Yeah, he was dropping off case files, I'm to be an Auror now" He had a plan of what he was going to say, and it went right out the window with one little smile.
"I'm sorry, to put you in this situation, I know you shouldn't be keeping secrets from him, but thank you" She said sincerely.
"Don't mention it" He mumbled. "Want tea?" He asked, and she smiled again, nodding at him.
"I put out some clothes for you, I know they probably won't fit, but I figured you'd want to change" He pointed to the chair where he left a shirt and a pair of sweatpants for her. "And if you want the shower is right through that door" He pointed across the room.
"Thank you, I'll just freshen up and meet you in the kitchen" He nodded and closed the door behind him, for some odd reason his palms were sweaty, he wiped them on his pants.
While Granger changed, he made a fresh pot of tea and some breakfast. He sat on the couch while he waited and closed his eyes for just a few moments, drifting off until he was asleep.
Hermione looked at herself in the mirror. She looked absolutely dreadful. Her face was puffy, and her right eye was ten different shades of purple. Her hair was matted and tangled and looked like a rat's nest. She was scared to even look at her leg, she knew that they had stitched it up, she was sure it looked nasty. She slowly took off her shirt, wincing in pain as she did. Her ribs were covered in bruises and her arms had scrapes all over. She slowly took off her jeans, they had cut them at the knee on the left side, to tend to the huge laceration. She had a trail of dried blood running down her leg. She looked around at the bathroom, the walls were white, the floors a beautiful marble, the tub glistened in the sunlight. The countertops were perfect, not a spec of dirt on the them. The huge mirrors had no fingerprints or marks. Hermione looked like a monster in this pristine palace of a bathroom. She felt as if anything she touched would be immediately ruined.
She went to the shower turned the water on as hot as it would go and stepped in. She cupped her hand over her mouth and cried as hard as could, she had been holding that in for so long. She cried for the pain and for how she looked and for messing up so badly. She cried because she was embarrassed and broken.
She let her hand drop and closed her eyes, taking a deep breath before cleaning herself off.
"Pull yourself together, Hermione" She said, scrubbing her body with Draco Malfoy's soap.
She turned the water off and grabbed one of the hanging white towels, it was like being wrapped in a cloud. She dried off and put her bra back on and Draco's shirt over. It was very loose, and it was a tad see through, she hoped her bruises weren't that noticeable. The sweatpants were also very loose on her, but she tied the string as tight as they would go. She looked herself over in the mirror, better than before, but still a sorry sight.
Hermione walked to the living room to find Draco fast asleep on the couch, his brows were furrowed, and he looked quite uncomfortable, like he was having a bad dream. She felt bad, but she felt solaced in the fact that he had nightmares too, she thought she was the only one who still had them. Harry had nightmares too, when they lived together she'd often help him through them, but then Ginny moved in and he had less and less. But she could not shake them, and it appeared Draco couldn't either. She wondered what his were about.
"Draco, do it now" He deranged aunt taunted. His whole arm was shaking, and the other Death Eaters were laughing at him. The kept laughing, he raised his wand and just as he was about to say the spell, Dumbledore changed before his eyes into his mother.
"Draco, please" She begged, she was crying and before Draco could stop, he had said the spell and green shot from his wand.
"NO" He yelled, waking himself up. He looked around to see that he was not at Hogwarts, but in his own home. His head snapped in the direction where Granger was standing, watching with curious eyes. How embarrassing, she had witnessed his little nightmare.
"Breakfast is ready" He stood up and hurried past her to the kitchen, she followed him and sat at one of the bar stools.
"Are you okay?" She asked.
"Fine, why wouldn't I be?" He shrugged, pouring her a cup of tea and one for himself.
"You had a bad dream; do you want to talk about?" She asked him, he almost spit out the tea he just sipped.
"No, Granger, I don't want talk about" He couldn't help but roll his eyes, he was not about to talk about his nightmares to Hermione bloody Granger.
"I get them too, if it makes you feel any better" She sipped the tea.
"It doesn't" He said, she shrugged, he handed her a plate with eggs and toast, the only breakfast foods he could make.
They ate in silence, although it wasn't really awkward, he kept glancing over at her. It was hard not to look at all her bruises and cuts, she looked pretty messed up.
When they both finished she pushed her plate away and turned to face him.
"Okay, I'm ready" She said.
"Ready for what, exactly?" He asked her, moderately confused.
"Any questions you have, I'll answer them to the best of my ability" She got up and went over the couch, pulling a blanket over lap and making herself comfy, Draco just stared at her. She patted the seat next to her.
"This has been the strangest two days of my life" He said under his breath and made his way to the couch.
It took him a minute to collect his thoughts, he had so many questions he didn't know what to ask first, she sat there patiently, looking at him with a curious look. She looked nervous, which he had never seen before, but she looked calm at the same time.
"Why didn't you go to Potter? Or Weasely?" He asked, she looked down at her hands.
"I was afraid you were going to ask that first" She sighed. It was either that or what the bloody hell happened to her, which he figured would be answered along with this question.
"It's kind of hard to explain, and may take a while, so bear with me" She fidgeted with the blanket in her hands.
"After the war, reporters and wizards trailed us to no end, everyone wanted to know everything that happened and in detail. Harry had been around that his whole life, so he was somewhat used to it, he knew how to ignore them, Ron had been in the shadows his whole life, craving attention, and he was finally getting it, so he was loving it, me on the other hand, was not handling it so well. The war itself had taken so much from me and I couldn't get any freedom" She shook her head. "I don't know if you remember this, but a few months after the battle, a reporter 'attacked me' and I fought back" She pushed a strand of hair behind her ear, she was still looking down at her hands.
"Yeah, that was front page news for weeks" Draco nodded.
"He didn't actually attack me, I attacked him, he snapped a few pictures of me and something came over me and I attacked him, Harry had to pull so many strings for him to be quiet and for the story to be rewritten" Draco couldn't help his surprised look. "The look of disappointment on Harry's face was heartbreaking, the look of disgust on Ron's face was maddening. They didn't understand why I was acting out the way I was, I hardly did myself. After that, I sort of ran away. Kingsley provided me with some wizarding worlds I could visit and learn about, but I sort of strayed from that, everything got so complicated and messy, I got mixed up in something I shouldn't have" She put her face in her hands.
"Hey, take it from someone who is the epitome of getting mixed up in things he shouldn't, you can always get out of it" His left forearm ached in reminder.
"I can't, I know too much, I can't just leave it alone" She said quietly.
"Can't leave what alone?" He questioned.
"I can't tell you, not yet, I'm sorry, you didn't have to take me in and you did, you could've told Harry I was here, but you didn't, I'm forever in your debt, Draco" She grabbed his hand, he looked down and she pulled away. "Sorry"
"It's okay, you don't have to say anything you don't want to" He smiled softly at her.
"I have another favor to ask you" She smiled weakly.
"Anything"
"Can I stay here for a while? Until I figure things out?" She looked at him, hope in her eyes.
"Yeah, sure, why not" He felt himself agreeing even though everything in him was telling him to tell her to leave.
"Thank you, Draco, thank you so much" She had tears in her eyes and before he could take it back, she was leaning over and pulled him in for a hug. For being weak, she held him tightly.
Any doubts he had about her staying melted away and Draco, for once in a very long time, felt reassured things might be okay.
